--- title: But the crab begged the elephant so hard to forgive him, and offered… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics description: But the crab begged the elephant so hard to forgive him, and offered to give up the animals he had killed, that at last the elephant trumpeted: “Go!” in a very loud voice, and the crab went, leaving the ten animals behind him. Who acts: crab, animals, elephant. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/13/10/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/) / [Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existe…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/13/) / 10 # Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existence; Or, Why a Crab Has No Head., sentence 10 But the crab begged the elephant so hard to forgive him, and offered to give up the animals he had killed, that at last the elephant trumpeted: “Go!” in a very loud voice, and the crab went, leaving the ten animals behind him. **Who acts:** crab, animals, elephant · **What happens:** beg, forgive, offer, give up, kill, trumpet · **To what, where:** that, elephant, last, crab, animals, loud voice · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existence; Or, Why a Crab Has No Head.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (crab, animals, elephant), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg70959:13:10 # text = But the crab begged the elephant so hard to forgive him, and offered to give up the animals he had killed, that at last the elephant trumpeted: “Go!” in a very loud voice, and the crab went, leaving the ten animals behind him. 1 But but CCONJ CC _ 4 cc _ _ 2 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 3 crab crab NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 4 begged beg VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 6 elephant elephant NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obj _ _ 7 so so ADV RB _ 8 advmod _ _ 8 hard hard ADV RB Degree=Pos 4 advmod _ _ 9 to to PART TO _ 10 mark _ _ 10 forgive forgive VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 8 advcl _ _ 11 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 10 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 13 and and CCONJ CC _ 14 cc _ _ 14 offered offer VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 4 conj _ _ 15 to to PART TO _ 16 mark _ _ 16 give give VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 14 xcomp _ _ 17 up up ADP RP _ 16 compound:prt _ _ 18 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 19 det _ _ 19 animals animal NOUN NNS Number=Plur 16 obj _ _ 20 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 22 nsubj:pass _ _ 21 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 22 aux _ _ 22 killed kill VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 19 acl:relcl _ SpaceAfter=No 23 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 24 that that PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 4 obl _ _ 25 at at ADP IN _ 26 case _ _ 26 last last ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 4 obl _ _ 27 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 elephant elephant NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 nsubj _ _ 29 trumpeted trumpet VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No 30 : : PUNCT : _ 32 punct _ _ 31 “ " PUNCT `` _ 32 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 32 Go go VERB VB Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin 29 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 33 ! ! PUNCT . _ 32 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 34 ” " PUNCT '' _ 32 punct _ _ 35 in in ADP IN _ 39 case _ _ 36 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 39 det _ _ 37 very very ADV RB _ 38 advmod _ _ 38 loud loud ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 39 amod _ _ 39 voice voice NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 40 , , PUNCT , _ 44 punct _ _ 41 and and CCONJ CC _ 44 cc _ _ 42 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 43 det _ _ 43 crab crab NOUN NN Number=Sing 44 nsubj _ _ 44 went go VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 45 , , PUNCT , _ 46 punct _ _ 46 leaving leave VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 44 advcl _ _ 47 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 49 det _ _ 48 ten ten NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 49 nummod _ _ 49 animals animal NOUN NNS Number=Plur 46 obj _ _ 50 behind behind ADP IN _ 51 case _ _ 51 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 46 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 52 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | the crab | that | the elephant | last | | hard *property* | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent elephant=Recipient | | 2 | **forgive** | to-infinitive | the crab *not said here* | crab | | | | | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | | 3 | **offer** | participle | the crab *not said here* | | | | | | tree rules | | 4 | **give up** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the crab *not said here* | the animals | | | | | vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent animal=Source | | 5 | **kill** | past · perfect · passive | the animals *not said here* | crab | | | | | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | | 6 | **trumpet** | past | the elephant | | | | | | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 7 | **go** *in a quote* | infinitive | the elephant *not said here* | | | a loud voice | | | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in voice=Location | | 8 | **go** | past | the crab | | | | | | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 9 | **leave** | gerund | the crab *not said here* | the ten animals | | | | behind crab | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent animal=Theme behind he=Location | One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree. **Text:** «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Project Gutenberg book 70959 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order. - ← previous: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/13/9/) - next →: [sentence 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/13/11/) - ↑ back to [Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existence; Or, Why a Crab Has No Head.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/13/)